technology

While the American political order is uniquely friendly to scientific advancement — as evidenced by the Constitution’s patent and copyright clause — many of the founders were also aware of the morally ambiguous character of the scientific quest. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin all thought about science’s proper place in American life, but Abraham Lincoln’s “Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions” is arguably the most sustained treatment by an American statesman of the connections between scientific inquiry, human nature, and the fate of freedom.

Please join AEI for the seventh annual Walter Berns Constitution Day Lecture, as Diana J. Schaub, professor of political science at Loyola University Maryland and visiting professor at Harvard University, traces how and why American statesmen deliberated about the intersection of science with moral and political questions.

According to the Associated Press, the city of Los Angeles has just released a smartphone app that will allow citizens to communicate even more directly and efficiently with their government. The app will allow residents to report potholes, pay city bills, and look up dog parks—among other things—from their smart phones. “Instead of calling 311 to report problems,” the AP writes, “residents can use the app. They can even snap photos to accompany reports of potholes or graffiti.”